


Is it possible Mr. Lovable is already in my life

by trilliastra



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alive Hale Family, Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Fluff, M/M, Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-14
Updated: 2014-10-14
Packaged: 2018-02-21 02:52:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,433
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2451989
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/trilliastra/pseuds/trilliastra
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The shadow starts to take form, and Derek steps closer to the Mirror. He still can’t see the face, but the body - it doesn’t look like the body of a woman. His heart seizes inside his chest. Could that be –</p><p>Yes, it has to be. Derek knows that body. He’s watched it many times in the locker room, admired it from afar, spent nights thinking about touching it. He smiles when the face becomes visible.</p><p>He stares at the grinning man in the Mirror, gets distracted admiring that face, the moles doting his cheek, neck and arms. Without thinking, he reaches out to touch it, runs his hand over the image where Stiles keeps smiling at him like he’s just as happy to see Derek.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Is it possible Mr. Lovable is already in my life

Derek stares at the Mirror for what feels like a long time, but all he can see is a blur. He turns to his mom, arches his eyebrow in a silent question, she smiles softly. “Be patient, honey.”

_Patient?_

Derek resists the urge to laugh. He’s been nothing but patient for the past eighteen years, and now – now that he’s finally here, he wants to _know._ He wants to know if he should be crying or laughing, if he knows them or if it’s going to take even longer to have his soulmate by his side.

He turns to the Mirror again, watches the shapeless form curiously. Still nothing.

Derek takes a deep breath, tries to calm himself. “Does it usually take this long?” He asks. Dr. Deaton looks up from his papers, smiles reassuringly.

“Don’t worry, Derek.” He says. “This is perfectly normal. Just focus on the Mirror, okay?”

Derek sighs again, runs a hand through his hair. As he waits he lets his mind wander, tries to imagine who it might be. He has a moment of panic when he thinks of the possibility of it being Paige – who died a few years ago – or worse, _Kate._

He shakes his head, prays silently for it to be anyone, _anyone_ but Kate. The last thing he wants is to live the rest of his life knowing the woman who tried to kill his family is the person he was always meant to be with.

The shadow starts to take form, and Derek steps closer to the Mirror. He still can’t see the face, but the body - it doesn’t look like the body of a woman. His heart seizes inside his chest. Could that be –

 _Yes,_ it has to be. Derek _knows_ that body. He’s watched it many times in the locker room, admired it from afar, spent nights thinking about touching it. He smiles when the face becomes visible.

He stares at the grinning man in the Mirror, gets distracted admiring that face, the moles doting his cheek, neck and arms. Without thinking, he reaches out to touch it, runs his hand over the image where Stiles keeps smiling at him like he’s just as happy to see Derek.

It’s his mom’s laugh that takes him from his stupor, and when Derek blinks, the image is gone, leaving him wondering if it was all just a dream.

–

“Do you want to talk about it?” His mom asks once they are in the car.

Derek shakes his head slowly. There’s nothing to talk about. Derek has a soulmate, a handsome, smart and amazing soulmate. It’s like his heart is going to burst with happiness.

Stiles is everything Derek wanted and more, because it’s real. It’s not just a dream anymore, Derek actually saw him in the Mirror. That means Stiles is his to love, to take care and share a life with, despite his mistakes, his flaws, there’s still someone for him out there.

“Do you know them?” Talia reaches out to take Derek’s hand.

“Him.” Derek answers, waits for his mom’s reaction.

“Him.” She repeats. When they stop at a red light she turns to him. “Are you happy?”

“Yes.” He says honestly, squeezes her hand. “I am. He’s amazing, mom. I don’t deserve him but –”

“Don’t say that.” She interrupts almost angrily. Derek gulps. His mom was always fiercely protective of her children and that includes not only protecting them from other people, but also protecting them from _themselves._ “You’re wonderful and you deserve everything.” She cuffs him on the back of his head. “I don’t want to listen to this self deprecating shit ever again, do you understand me?”

“Yes, mom.” Derek recoils, nods.

Talia smiles. “Good. Let’s go home, your father called me twice already.”

Derek laughs, imagines his dad walking around the house nervously and waiting for them to come back. At Laura’s 18th birthday, their mom took her to see Deaton and three hours later they got home to half the kitchen covered in flour and Derek and Cora trying to stop their dad from punching Peter.

No one knows what Peter said to make their dad so angry, but really, Derek thinks that time – and that time only – it wasn’t his uncle’s fault.

“He’s not 18 yet.” Derek blurts out after some time of silence.

“So?” Talia asks. “I had to wait two years for your dad. And it was absolutely worth it.” She reaches out to ruffle Derek’s hair. “Don’t worry honey. It’s going to be okay.”

Derek hopes she’s right.

–

Derek is dragged into a family hug the moment he steps home. It’s mostly his dad crying on his shoulder and Laura patting his shoulder gently, but Cora is there too and in the end it’s nice.

He doesn’t give details, doesn’t say it’s Stiles despite Cora’s nagging questions, Peter’s sassy remarks – Derek would be angrier at him if he weren’t sporting a black eye already, Cora said she wasn’t strong enough to hold their dad without him this time, Derek laughs so hard he cries – and Laura’s pointed looks.

All in all, Derek thinks it could have been worse. Until the other day, that is.

–

“Dude!” Stiles yells as soon as Derek is out of his car. “How was it?”

Derek doesn’t answer at first, too busy admiring Stiles to understand the question.

He had feelings for him before, there’s no denying it, but now that he knows it’s not just a crush, everything feels bigger and even a little suffocating.

He wants nothing more than to hold Stiles and kiss him, say ‘you’re my soulmate’ and ‘we’re meant to be’, but he can’t yet. Stiles is not 18 and he has the right to his own choices before going to Deaton.

“Derek!” Stiles snaps his fingers in front of him. “Are you okay?”

Derek nods weakly. “Yeah. It feels weird, you know –” He trails off. Stiles nods enthusiastically.

“Who is it?”

“I’m not going to tell you.” He takes his backpack, walks with Stiles to their first class.

Before Stiles can say anything else, they are already being surrounded by other classmates, all asking Derek about his soulmate. He gives Stiles an apologetic smile, and lets himself be dragged to his chair by his curious friends.

The day passes quickly, especially when Derek has to lie to every person that asks him about his soulmate. It’s weird, being the center of the attention and Derek hates every second of it, but he was prepared. He saw first hand how things happened to Boyd and Erica, the only difference being that Boyd and Erica knew they were each others’ soulmate from the start so the questions stopped there, but Derek has to deal with hopeful classmates throwing themselves at him at every opportunity too.

Stiles is always around and Scott joins them most of the time, but they just make jokes and watch Derek curiously when he gets distracted staring at Stiles for too long.

“Can you give me a ride?” Stiles asks, following him through the parking lot. “My dad confiscated my Jeep.”

“Hey, why didn’t you ask me?” Scott says. Derek snorts at the outraged tone in his voice.

“Because I don’t want to die, thank you very much.” Stiles gestures at Scott’s bike, rolling his eyes. “So?”

“Sure.” Derek answers, waves goodbye at Scott and leads Stiles towards Laura’s Camaro.

“I love your sister.” Stiles says closing the door. He rubs the side of his face on the seat. “This is the best car ever.” Derek hums in agreement, tries not to look at where Stiles keeps running his hands everywhere. “What’s wrong?”

Stiles stares at him, concerned. “Nothing. Just felt weird having all that attention on me.”

“Yeah, it looked weird too.” He agrees. “I better get ready for when my time comes.” Derek’s heart jumps inside his chest, and he tries to hide his hopeful smile.

“Two weeks, right?”

“Yeah.” Stiles answers excitedly. Since Derek met Stiles, he’s always been excited about the prospect of meeting his soulmate. At first Derek thought it was because it might be Stiles’ only chance of having Lydia, but after she and Jackson announced their love was really meant to be, Stiles didn’t even looked crushed – just kept talking about going to the Mirror with the same enthusiasm of before. “I hope it’s not one-sided.”

Derek snorts. “Yeah, as if that’s possible.”

“Dude, there’s like 65% chance of that happening.” Derek’s stomach drops and he feels the panic spreading through his body. “Uh – you just drove past a red light.”

“65%?” He answers, incredulous.

“Yeah?” Stiles says. “I thought you knew. The government says otherwise because they are afraid it would cause panic and riots everywhere. But that’s the official number.” Derek parks the car in front of Stiles’ house, but keeps his hands on the steering wheel. He’s breathing hard and he knows he’s scaring Stiles, but damn it – Derek can’t think. “Fuck, Derek – are you okay?” When Derek doesn’t answer, Stiles touches his arm and asks again, louder this time.

“Do I look okay?” He finally snaps, making Stiles flinch. “I thought I had a chance of being happy! I thought – the person I love would finally love me back! I’d have someone, but now I find out that it doesn’t _work like that_? Tell me, do I fucking look okay?”

“Derek, you still –”

“No, I don’t!” Derek growls, punches the steering wheel over and over again. “This is a fucking joke.” He laughs, bitter. “Get out, Stiles.”

“No!” Stiles protests. “I’m not letting you drive like this! I’m sorry if what I said hurt you, but you’re amazing Derek! If your soulmate doesn’t love you, you will find someone! Like –” Stiles looks around, a little panicked. “me, for example. I don’t know who my soulmate is, but it doesn’t matter because I’m sure they won’t mean anything.” Derek feels like he was punched. “I’ll still be able to fall in love with someone else, like you –”

“Get out.” Derek interrupts. “Get out, Stiles.”

“But –”

“Now!” It’s Stiles’ turn to gape. He’s about to say something, but Derek shakes his head quickly and tells him to leave again. Stiles gets out, backpack in hand. He barely closed the door, and Derek is already driving off.

–

When Derek gets home he feels like shit, and usually when he feels like shit he takes it out on his family.

He yells at his mom and dad for lying, yells at Peter for being an asshole, at Laura for having a nice relationship with her boyfriend and soulmate, even yells at Cora for – he doesn’t really know why.

His parents let him scream until he’s hoarse, but after he calmed down they make him apologize to everyone (including Peter, and Derek thinks _that_ was the real punishment) and in the end his heart doesn’t stop hurting and to make things even better, he gets grounded.

When he goes to school the other day, he still feels like things couldn’t get any worse, but as it turns out, not talking to Stiles or Scott (because he’s awfully loyal to Stiles and will always chose him over Derek), is harder than he expected.

Weirdly what gets him going for the next couple of days is remembering the talk they had, when Stiles said people can fall in love with other someone that isn’t their soulmate. Even though Derek doesn’t have Stiles, thinking that in the future he can find someone, brings some sort of comfort.

He still thinks he would be better off alone and this whole mess is just the universe’s way of telling him that, but deep down, he waits and _hopes_.

–

“Der –” Derek looks up to see Cora waving sadly at him from the door. “there’s someone here to see you.”

Derek groans, hides his head under the pillow. “Don’t wanna.”

Cora groans, throws a shoe on him. “It’s been two weeks, idiot. You need to stop moping eventually.”

He throws the shoe back without taking his head from under the pillow. “Don’t wanna.” He repeats. Cora huffs angrily and turns around, slamming the door shut behind her.

Less than five minutes later there’s another knock on his door. This time it’s different from his sister’s insistent ones, it’s cautious, and Derek immediately knows who it is. “Hey.” Stiles says, walking inside the bedroom at the same time Derek hurries to stand and throw his pillow back on the bed. He looks good and it makes Derek want to cry. “So I’m your soulmate, huh?”

Derek swallows heavily. He knew this was coming too, Stiles would figure out eventually, he always does. “Yeah.” He answers softly.

“I’m sorry.” Stiles says.

Derek closes his eyes, takes a deep breath. “No, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have reacted like that – you don’t owe me anything and I treated you like shit.”

“No.” Stiles raises his hand. “I meant sorry for the misunderstanding.” Derek’s eyes widen when Stiles suddenly starts smiling. “You were acting completely normal around me at school so I thought ‘nope, I’m not his soulmate, but maybe I don’t need to be’.” He explains, and Derek’s heart skips a beat.

“You said that because you wanted me to chose you over my soulmate?” He blinks.

Stiles shrugs. “It’s not like I was lying, there _is_ 65% chance of people ending up with an one-sided soulmate. And I had to try, you know? I mean, I love you – I’d regret forever if I didn’t.”

It’s like the world turned upside down. Derek’s heart starts beating so fast he’s scared it’s going to explode. “You what?”

Stiles smiles again. “Yeah, I do. I love you.” He says. “I went to see the Mirror today. And it only confirmed what I always knew here.” He rests a hand over his heart. “I just wasn’t sure if I was going to be yours.”

“But you are.” Derek says, slapping himself mentally for coming up with such a stupid answer. “You are my soulmate.”

“And you’re mine.” Stiles confirms, steps closer when he notices Derek is not going to move. “I love you.”

That laugh Derek kept to himself since the day he found out Stiles is his soulmate bubbles out, and suddenly Stiles is in his arms and they are both clutching at each other and laughing. “Oh God, I love you too.”

“I know, I know.” Stiles answers, laughing even harder. “We’re going to be together forever.” He says, and isn’t that everything Derek ever wanted to hear?

“Yes.” He agrees, pulls Stiles closer. “We are.”

**Author's Note:**

> I honestly couldn't find a better title so I went with this one anyway.
> 
> And here's my [tumblr](http://www.brookesbutler.tumblr.com) if you want to talk ;)


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